Founder's Week

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For Founder's Week, I participated in the Milk and Cookies Event with the Sisters on Monday Night. For this event, myself and a group of students lit candles in the quad and then walked down to the residence of the Sisters. We brought with us milk and cookies to share with the sisters. We were greeted at the door by two sisters who welcomed us in and took us upstairs to greet the rest of the sisters who were waiting for us in their dinning room. All the students were asked to share their name and a bit of information about ourselves including our hometown, grade and major. Then the sister's went around the room and shared information about themselves. It was interesting to learn that all of the sisters have spent their lifetimes within the realm of education, whether it be as an elementary school teacher, a librarian, an administrator or a college professor. It was also inspiring to learn that many of them taught for at least half a century and many of them have been in the sisterhood since they were around 18-20 years old. After all of the sisters shared their stories, we were invited to join the sisters at the tables and get to know a few of them more closely. I am not quite sure of the names of the sisters I sat with but they were all very interesting in learning more about the extracurricular activities that myself and the two other students that were sitting at the table with me were involved in.Interestingly enough, I got to talking to them about my CP and how I am helping to find my sister more funding for her program. They were very happy to hear of my attempt to help my sister. They were also excited to hear that I volunteer with youth softball and BAWSI with the school softball team. Although I never realized it, the sports teams at our school follow the mission statements of the sisters in someway because we all try to give back to the community in some way. One of the students also sung two songs for the sisters and the sisters later sung a song for us. It was a very inspiring and interesting evening.

During this event, I learned more about the individual achievements and career choices of the various foundresses. It gave me a chance to learn about how involved each of the sisters were in education in their own right. It was also inspiring to hear about how devoted each of the sisters were to educating the youth. The foundresses at my table were also excited to learn and hear about the various students getting involved in extracurricular activities. They liked to hear that students were doing what they could to give back to the community. Their passion and devotion to being involved in the community shone through.

I believe that a student in the political science department at NDNU could incorporate the ideals of the foundresses into their future careers in a variety of ways. One way in which a political science major could to this is by pursuing a career that has them directly involved in protecting and fighting for the rights of citizens. This could be anything from being a politician, writing laws, being a public servant or being a lawyer. One could also volunteer on the side to make sure that each member of society is able to exercise their right to vote. For example, one could work to make sure the youth register to vote or someone could help design a voter identification law that does not make it difficult for citizens to be able to vote.